


A Drop in the Ocean

by shortcircuitify



Series: Wandering Wanderers [3]
Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 18:21:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9778781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shortcircuitify/pseuds/shortcircuitify
Summary: To the world – Emily, Corvo, Samuel’s dying memories – she is lost to the sea, its hungry jaws swallowing her whole, leaving nothing behind but the dull memories of a woman that never smiled.





	

Callista has always dreamed of the open sea, the roiling waves, the whales calling at her back as she would be at the helm of a massive vessel, treading her own path and making her mark on the wide-open world – on something so much larger than herself. She wished to discover pirates and battles and new islands and everything in between, feel the salt on her tongue, filling the cracks of her skin until she was an old, wrinkly sailor.

Instead, Callista got none of those things – her life was meant to be a maid to others, cleaning the mistakes of the nobility, nanny to an Empress while the world began crumbling beneath her feet, where even the sea did not seem like an escape, and all that was left for her was a sordid affair that ended with her lover’s supposed death, leaving no trace of the marks she left on his body, or his touch upon her bare thighs and stomach.

It would not do for an Overseer, anyway.

She was tutor to the Queen, and it was all she was meant to be, Empress Emily Kaldwin the First to be her finest masterpiece.

But instead, Callista is none of those things – not now. To the world – Emily, Corvo, Samuel’s dying memories – she is lost to the sea, its hungry jaws swallowing her whole, leaving nothing behind but the dull memories of a woman that never smiled.

She feels the thick rope in her hand, gripping it tightly as she leans over the edge of the ship’s rails, feeling the mist of the water touch her flushed cheeks. Her hands are already calloused, the ship-work hard and satisfying to her bones. And there, with the wind whipping against her hair and the cool of the sea drenching her clothes, she laughs, smiles as she takes in Dunwall’s far off Tower, its receding shadow, and thinks of Emily, and smiles, because Emily is smart and kind and clever, and she will do _so well_ as Empress.

A hand wraps itself around her waist, pulls her back from the magnetic pull of the waves, and she turns in his arms, looking up at him.

“We’ve done it, after all these years,” he says, and there too, is a wide smile, free from the duties of the Abbey and a long-lost faith.

Callista laughs, twines her hands around the nape of his neck, “They’ll think us dead.” The thought is comforting, in a way that makes her heart thump loudly in her chest.

Teague smirks, “You, maybe. I’ve been gone long enough to be forgotten by now, I hope.”

And he is so different, too, with a thick beard that rubs her skin raw when they kiss, a disguise turned into this new him, that looks so much younger than he did when she first met him at the pub. When there was nothing for them but stolen glances, kisses. She loves it.

His eyes are serious, looking over her face, lips, the little bit of exposed neck peeking through her jacket collar, “Are you ready?”

She nods, runs the pad of her thumb over his cheek, “Yes,” her eyes are so soft, filled with possibilities, that he kisses her.

“We won’t be returning,” he reminds her, just in case there is any hesitation in her answer.

He has been waiting for this, too, to leave behind remnants of a past that are far from being redeemed, to escape from hiding the dredges of his mistakes. To live free, run along sandy beaches, make sweet, slow love, if only for a time.

In answer, she turns in his arms, leaning against his body, and says, with all of the determination of her uncle, “To Pandyssia.”

It is bittersweet, their escape, away from the islands that have been their home for decades. But it is so exciting, too.

**Author's Note:**

> I've definitely been meaning to write this for a while. I wanted a nicer ending for Callista, after everything she went through, so I can't really see her being lost to the sea so easily - hope I've done a nice little twist on choosing your own destiny type of thing


End file.
